There are some great artists coming to the Edmonton Jazz Festival, June 28 to July 02nd. And many of them are touring and going to other festivals as well….so hopefully many of you will get a chance to hear and see them.

This three part series features some of the players.

I start out with one that I’m most excited about; that’s John Beasley’s MONK’estra, who are opening the evening concerts.

Or, one could go and see Australia’s Brekky Boy playing around the same time at Edmonton’s Chateau Lacombe.

The second night includes grammy winning trumpet player Chris Botti and the very much transformed “The Bad Plus”. Opening for them is an Edmonton raised L.A. session drummer named Efajemue Etoramo Jr. Between those two concerts, overlapping each of them, is an impressionistic chamber ensemble from Nova Scotia who call themselves New Hermitage.

You’ll hear tracks by all of those artists on this podcast.

Also I play a couple tracks by some of Edmonton’s great local artists. The first night you can hear Edmonton drummer Joel Jeschke and his quartet. And the second night, quite the contrast, with Chandelle Rimmer and Tom Van Seters.

Next week: I’ll talk more about the 3rd and 4th nights and play the music of some of those artists.